All Fifty States by Age 50

Of course, there are some states where I've barely walked around on the station platform (e.g., Oregon), and some where probably haven't gotten off the train at all (e.g., New Hampshire, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama), and some where I'd barely passed through the edge of the State (e.g., Tennessee and Kentucky). But I passed through the states, nonetheless, on the ground, able to see people's homes, businesses, schools, and churches.

By 1976, I'd been on two family vacations, both of them car trips to visit my father's family in North Dakota, and both including a stop in Yellowstone National Park. It wasn't until around 1980 that my family and I flew for the first time, for our first family vacation in San Francisco.

In 1982, for our second trip to San Francisco, I went off on my own, the last day, and caught a train to Sacramento, so I could have just enough time there for a quick look at the California State Railroad Museum, before catching my own flight home (my parents and I were in the air at the same time, but on different flights). That established a pattern that I would be repeating frequently, by the time I began vacationing on my own: some time in San Francisco, followed by some time in Sacramento. My second visit to Sacramento was my first overnight stay there; because the only available train arrived at midnight, and I hadn't specified otherwise when booking my room, I was given a waterbed. Even though they moved me to another room for my second and final night, I didn't return to that hotel: it might have looked good on paper, but it was neither especially comfortable nor especially convenient. Within a few years, I was doing the entire trip by train, and had found comfortable, convenient lodgings in both San Francisco and Sacramento, lodgings I continue to rely upon today.

By 1995, I'd taken a couple of trips to Texas, as part of the Hurd Video crew, videotaping skating competitions there, at least one of which was by road, passing through Arizona and New Mexico.

In 1999, for the first time in my life, I had three weeks of paid vacation, and decided to use most of that time to take the train all the way up to Seattle. By that time, I was taking regular organ lessons, and I was particularly interested in visiting St. Mark's Cathedral, in order to hear (and play) the organ on which several of my favorite recordings were made.

In 2000, I had begun taking separate Spring and Fall vacations, and that November, I took the train all the way to Florida, for my first visit to Walt Disney World, and my first visit to Kennedy Space Center. Because of time limitations, I had less than five full days in Florida, and had to fly home.

In the Fall of 2001, I took the train all the way up to Seattle (with a brief stop in San Francisco, because I couldn't pass it up), then took the train to Chicago (my first visit there, picking up Minnesota and Wisconsin along the way), with a brief stop in North Dakota, to visit my grandmother (who had just turned 90 that year). Then I took the train home (picking up Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado along the way. Unfortunately, that trip also included a visit to what I've come to refer to "The People's Democratic Republic of Lumbago": my back went out, just before I left Seattle, and for the rest of the vacation (and several weeks after), I couldn't sit down for very long at a time.

It was probably about that time that I began to realize how many states I'd visited, and began to think about visiting all fifty.

In 2002, I didn't visit any states I hadn't at least passed through before, but I returned to Walt Disney World that fall (this time, taking the train both ways), and stopped in New Orleans along the way.

In 2003, I flew to Dallas in the fall, then took the train to Chicago, and on to Philadelphia, spending a bit under a week in both Chicago and Philadelphia, and a day in Dallas, on the way home.

In the Spring of 2004, (now up to four weeks of vacation!), I was feeling a little jaded on Northern California, and decided to visit Boston instead, taking my first flight on JetBlue, and making a day-trip to Portland, Maine. That fall, I returned to New Orleans, spending a few days there before going on to Walt Disney World (and Kennedy Space Center), then my first visit to Colonial Williamsburg (a place I'd wanted to visit since reading "The Bobbsey Twins' Red, White, and Blue Mystery" in 1971), then back to Chicago for a few days, then back to New Orleans (so that, back at a time when airlines were at their anticompetitive worst, I could fly a "simple round trip" instead of a complex itinerary).

By then, I was well on my way to visiting all fifty states, having picked up Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine in the Spring, and Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland (and about an hour's stroll in Washington, DC, while changing trains for Chicago), West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

In 2005, I decided to visit Alaska (in the Spring, taking a cruise from Vancouver, BC to Seward, AK, then the Alaska Railroad from there to Anchorage, before flying home, after I'd already taken the train to San Francisco, Sacramento, and Seattle) and Hawaii (in November, avoiding the heat as much as I could). But those are stories for other pages.

In Spring of 2006, after San Francisco and Sacramento, took the train to Chicago, passing over some of the original Central Pacific route. Some of the tunnels through the Rocky Mountains are so long, that passengers are asked to avoid unnecessarily passing between cars, in order to minimize the diesel fumes onboard the train. That fall, I took a Grand Tour of New England, all by rail, on a route I'd designed myself, spending a week in and around Boston, before going on to New Haven, CT, Montpelier, VT, Windsor, VT, Mystic, CT, Providence, RI, then passing back through Boston on my way back to Portland, ME (with an overnight stay, this time), and back to Boston. This left only New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Michigan.

In the Fall of 2007, I flew to Washington, DC, where I visited several Smithsonian museums, along with the Washington Monument, the Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Einstein, and Vietnam War Memorials, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. While I was there, I also took a day-trip to Wilmington, DE (where I visited the Hagley Museum, and a monument to Declaration of Independence signer Caesar Rodney), and then went on to Colonial Williamsburg (even better the second time), and Walt Disney World (with another side-trip to Kennedy Space Center).

In Fall of 2008, I made my first visit to New York City, and my second to Philadelphia. And because I'd timed my 2006 "Grand Tour of New England" so poorly, at least in terms of concerts, I also made a side-trip to Boston, taking my first Acela train in the process.

In 2009, I took two separate Spring vacations: first, I visited Tucson, AZ (just so I could finally meet organist-composer Dr. Pamela Decker), Dallas (this time, long enough to see the Zoo, as well as several museums), Oklahoma City (I think some of the fertilizer Chicago uses to grow such big museums must have spilled on the Oklahoma History Center), and the Grand Canyon; the "late Spring" vacation was just my usual San Francisco/Sacramento jaunt.

That fall, I flew to Denver, where I spent the better part of a day before going on to Rapid City, SD, where I took a bus tour of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Black Hills, before returning to Denver, to catch a flight to North Dakota, to visit my grandmother, before catching the train to my next destination. I spent a day in Minneapolis, visiting the local museums, and a statue of Mary Tyler Moore (eternally re-enacting the "hat toss" from the open of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, frozen in mid-toss for posterity), then on to Chicago.

It was during my stay in Chicago that I finally achieved fifty states, with over two and a half years to spare: I'd considered every city Amtrak serves in Michigan, but finally settled on Ann Arbor, a modest college town that promised to have plenty of not-terribly-touristy museums.

As soon as I was sure my train had crossed the Michigan State Line, I celebrated my first entry into the last State on my agenda, by going to the lounge car and having a cinnamon roll.

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